Business Directories

BRICS to reject use of force in Mideast, Africa

Beijing, April 13, 2011

Leaders from five of the world's largest emerging economies will reject the use of force in the Middle East and North Africa at a summit on Thursday, urging instead dialogue and non-intervention, according to a draft statement.

The 'BRICS' nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will also urge the development of physical markets to reduce commodity price volatility as well as demand a greater say for developing nations in multilateral forums.

In the context of the Middle East and Northern Africa, specifically Libya, the BRICS 'share the principle that the use of force must be avoided', according to the draft statement, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

China, with Russia, India, Brazil and other developing countries have condemned the US-led air strikes on Libyan forces.

South Africa, on the other hand, voted in favour of the United Nations Security Council resolution authorising the strikes. However, during a visit to Tripoli on Sunday, South African President Jacob Zuma called for Nato to stop air strikes.

The BRICS summit, in the balmy southern Chinese resort of Sanya, will give the world's big rising economies a venue to coordinate views on global financial reforms, commodity prices and other shared concerns.

Trade ministers of the five nations gave no sign on Wednesday of being ready to make concessions to break a deadlock in decade-old talks to free up global commerce.

The Doha Round of negotiations, being conducted under the umbrella of the World Trade Organisation, has made little progress since coming tantalisingly close to a breakthrough in 2008.

Among the main reasons for failure then were the refusal of the United States and other rich countries to reduce farm subsidies further, and the rejection by developing countries, led by India, to increase Western access to their markets for goods and services.

Meeting on the eve of a BRICS summit, trade ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and new member South Africa sounded pessimistic about the prospects for the talks.

'The delicate balance of trade-offs achieved over 10 years of negotiations and contained in the draft July 2008 texts risks being upset,' the ministers said in a media statement.

Leaders of the Group of 20 advanced and developing economies declared in November that there was a narrow window of opportunity in 2011 to finish the round. A number of key WTO members, including the United States and France, have elections in 2012.

The United States said last month that major emerging economies had to muster the political courage to open their markets. But, by endorsing the outline agreement drawn up in 2008, the BRICS suggested the onus was on the West to climb down.

'Ministers remain willing to conclude the round on the basis of those draft modalities,' they said in the draft statement.

The economic clout of the BRICS group is growing as the developed world struggles to pare debt and the five are starting to operate as a common bloc in the G20, providing a counterpoint to the United States and other traditional powers.

The five BRICS countries accounted for just under 18 percent of the world's economy in 2010, though China's GDP was bigger than the other four members put together. - Reuters